Honest take, lads: this All Blacks backline is the most exciting
Rieko, Will Jordan and that midfield stepping through holes Carter would've needed a map for, yeah I'll back the 2025 backs over the 2015 lot every day of the week, bro. Nostalgia's a hell of a drug but half of you would've lumped NZ$50 on this backline at the TAB already if you actually believed your own memories. Fight me. 😏
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Nah Paul, watch Jordan hit full tilt in the Bledisloe and tell me it's walking pace 😤🔥 I still get chills from the 2015 semi, mind. Ah well, nowt to do 🙌You don't abandon your own.
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Rob's got a point, even if he oversells it. I could be wrong, but the July caveat Paul raises is fair - context matters, and a mid-winter hit-out against tired legs tells you less than a Rugby Championship double-header. What tips me towards the 2025 lot is the sample across the whole season: Jordan's strike rate whenever he's had clean ball in Test footy, and Rieko finishing off phases that simply didn't exist in 2015's structure. Carter was a surgeon within a system; this mob generate chaos themselves. That said, the semi against Springboks still gives me goosebumps, and McCaw playing on one working leg is untouchable in my book. Both things can be true. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Back in my day we queued round the block at Eden Park to watch Carter run the show, and I'll say this: that 2015 side earned the right to be called great over years, not one July window. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it. Excitement and proven are two different animals, but aye, this current lot do make the old heart tick a bit faster 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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underdog my old mate, even you have to admit this lot play with a freedom we only saw in flashes back then 😄 sure, carter earned his crown over years, but watch jordan hit a gap at full tilt and tell me the 2015 boys had that speed. i was at eden park for the bledisloe nights son, and these young fellas still make my heart go quicker.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Half of you are rating a backline off one July window and a few highlight reels, which is exactly the sort of sample size I wouldn't accept in a contract review. Jordan's pace is real, no argument there, but excitement and greatness are two different claims, define which one you're actually making. I'll believe it when this lot win a Rugby Championship away leg against a full-strength Springbok pack, not before.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Hannah's got the sharpest post in this thread so far, and I say that as someone who keeps a spreadsheet on this stuff 📊 Excitement and greatness genuinely are two different claims, you can be thrilled by a backline that loses to a proper Bokke rush defence, and you can be bored stiff by one that wins a World Cup. My caveat, though: I could be wrong, but the "one July window" framing undersells it slightly, because the athleticism on show isn't a sample-size question. Jordan's top speed or a midfield stepping through a test-quality line is repeatable evidence; whether they convert it into silverware over three or four seasons is the actual open question. I remember watching Nonu and Carter at Eden Park in 2015 and thinking that was the ceiling. Now I'm honestly not sure it was. My old man still reckons nothing tops Carter's cross-kick off the left boot that night, and I've given up arguing with him at the dinner table. Ask me again after this year's Rugby Championship.Do the math before you argue.
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The boring 2015 lot won a World Cup, mate 😏 excitement's nice but I'd rather have the trophy. Wait for the fanboys to pile in 🤡Here to argue, not to nod along.
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😂 Boring 2015 lot?? Bro I was at Eden Park when Nonu stepped Smith inside-out and we STILL bring it up at training with the juniors - that team had spice too, they just saved it for when it mattered 🤬 Here's my needle tho: excitement is fine until a Bokke rush defence smashes it flat, then give me the axis every time tbh 💪
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Ha, "boring 2015 lot". Sonny, I watched that World Cup from my couch in Gisborne with me old man's jersey on, and boring it was not. Seen it all before though: every generation reckons the current backs are flashier, and half the time the old heads turn out right come the business end. Give this lot a proper Bokke test before we anoint them 😄Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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My spreadsheet says both camps have a leg to stand on, which is the least satisfying result possible. Revisit this after the next Bokke test. 📊Numbers > vibes.